Subject:
Campaign: NORWAY MUST FULLY RESPECT RIGHTS OF PEOPLE WITH
DISABILITIES, says the CoE Commissioner for Human Rights

Dear
Mental Disability Advocacy Center,

thank
you for your publication about the visit and report
of the CoE Commissioner for Human Rights in Norway (1).

Thank
you for for your legal
opinion showing that Norway should withdraw reservations to the
UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD),
because they undermine the very object and purpose of the CRPD.

I
agree that this it "is unacceptable for a country such as
Norway, which has a global reputation promoting and protecting human
rights". Therefore I
wrote to the Norwegian Prime Minister as you suggested.

In
order to make it easier for other people to support this letter to
the Norwegian Prime minister, I started a campaign (2).

In
addition I would like to draw your attention that 5 UN Committees are
concerned about reducing and removing coercion in psychiatry in
Norway (3).

“Compared
with other European countries, Norway ranks the highest when it comes
to the use of compulsory commitment” in mental health treatment
(page 44, reference
6) .

(a)
“Whether the use of restraints and the enforced administration
of intrusive and irreversible treatments such as neuroleptic drugs
and electroconvulsive therapy has been abolished in law...”

Norways
answer has so far been to wait for the results of a National Strategy
to reduce coercion in Psychiatry (2012-2015). Results has so far not
exceeded 5 to 7 % per year. However since year 2000 it was known that
coercion in psychiatry raises human rights questions and there have
been plans to reduce coercion in psychiatry. The overall result was
an increase of a third from 2000 to 2015 (4).

I
send a copy to Norwegian civil society shareholders to keep them
informed.